Gooding

The plaintiff had judgment against the defendant in an action for malicious prosecution, from which judgment the defendant appeals.

The record shows that on or about the fourteenth day of September, 1927, the plaintiff was arrested upon a complaint sworn to by the defendant charging her with stealing the sum of $152.05. The arrest was followed by a preliminary hearing, where the plaintiff was discharged. At the time of the arrest the plaintiff was a woman of about fifty-nine years of age; had lived in California between forty-two and forty-three years; was a widow and had one married daughter.

The jury returned a verdict in the sum of $7,500, which verdict was reduced by the trial court to the sum of $1500.

The arrest arose out of the transaction relating to the sale of the furniture of a certain apartment house made by the plaintiff to the defendant. The record shows that at the time of the sale the sum of $152.05 was due to the Broadway Department Store. The transcript mentions the fact that the sale of the apartment house and furniture therein involved the sum of $20,600. Just how much of this sum was paid to the plaintiff cannot be ascertained from the record.

At the time…